Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is the .260 Rem dead?

Well..... If I was going to buy a deer rifle today, right now, it'd be a Howa Mini, light weight in 6.5 grendel.

Otherwise I'd go Creed. Seems like a better mouse trap.

I'll believe that the 6.5 Creedmoor is mainstream when I see the rifles and ammo at Wal-Mart alongside the 243s and 270s.

I'm liking the CZ more better.

Not if you watch Rips .260. Does some pretty good shooten with it.

Cz got a lightweight carbine in 6.5 Grendel?

It's not so much a matter of sounding sexier.



The 260 has two major flaws.

- a slow twist that doesn't handle higher bc bullets.
- case geometry that would not handily accommodate longer high BC bullets in a 2.8" magazine.



Whoever designed the 6.5 Creedmoor had a clue what they were trying to achieve..

Not MD but I modified my .260 Tikka mag by milling out the rear plastic partition and epoxy glued a shorter version of it in it's place. Some have used a piece of aluminum c- channel of the proper dimension, available at some hardware stores. I then ground a bit off the bolt stop to give it a bit longer stroke. You can see what to shorten by looking at a pic of the long and short bolt stop together.
This worked great for me as I can now seat to the lands with 140gr VLDs and my Tikka went from a very ordinary shooter to the accuracy level I hoped to get, and maybe even better.
I had no luck with the long magazine, would not feed the .260s very good at all.

Kinda. A slick little 527, but it sports a 24" barrel. The local gun shop has one and it has above average walnut for a CZ 527. Even with the longer barrel, it feels well under 6 lbs.

I've had a .260 in my battery since 2005. First was a NULA and now it's a GA Precision build on a 700 action. It's my most accurate deer rifle and will shoot just about any bullet sub-MOA. It REALLY likes the 100 gr TTSX & IMR 4064. I don't shoot anything larger than 130 grains, a COAL of 2.750" has worked well for me in most bullet/powder combinations. It has a 22" Lilja 1-8" 3-groove barrel and I run 100's @ 3100, 120's @ 2900 & 130's @ 2800 fps. I'm very happy with it.

The two major flaws that you cite only are flaws when high BC VLD are part of the equation, Otherwise most component hunting bullets from 85 through 140 grains work fine with the 1-9" ROT that Remington used until recently and feed through the 2.8" Remington SA magazines as well as any of the other 308 family of cartridges. At least that has been my experience with around three dozen of them.

I started shooting rifles in 6.5 Creedmoor because it was something new to try and I'm always in search of new projects to keep busy.

Yeaaaahhhh that 24inch barrel is a deal breaker for me. Their safety is bassakwards too isn't it?

What started the whole "is the .260 dead" with me was when I discovered that the Barnes Vortex line had dropped the .260 from their line of factory ammo. In the past 10 years, since I bought the .260 for my wife, I've never had a problem going to the few local gun shops in our area, and finding a good selection of 120 grn factory ammo for it.
This year is QUITE different. After going to 3 different gun shops, I managed to find 1 old, dusty box of 140 grn cor-lokts. Those same shelves are now filled with 6.5 Creedmoor ammo. Hence the question, is the .260 dead? There were many good answers, things that were never a issue for me, that I simply wasn't aware of. It's one of the reasons I do like this site. I may not post much, but I do come here almost daily to read the posts.

My wife and I are simply deer hunters. We're in the "sight in before the season begins" and then go hunting group. We'll get out once a month during the season( our season lasts 4.5 months here in South Carolina) and shoot a couple of times just to make sure nothing has moved. We MAY go thru 2 boxes of ammo in a year. I don't reload, so I rely on what Factory ammo is available. Her rifle, a Kimber I bought used off of here, shoots these amazing, tiny little groups, with nearly any 120 grn load I've tried. I've never wanted, or felt the need to shoot anything heavier it. The mild recoil, and report, makes it the ideal set up for my wife, and granddaughter, and the damn thing kills like there's no tomorrow. Thankfully, Superior Ammo is less than 10mins away, so I can always get ammo from them.

260 shooters are fortunate that there is still factory ammo available to them, WSSM shooters are envious.

In fairness, I believe Carmichael's idea was primarily a 'perfect' deer rifle. I can't offer any arguments to that.

Also, bullets and long range shooting have come a long way since the 260 was introduced.

Pass the 260 Remington.... epic cartridge...

So you're in doubt of the 6.5 Creedmoor's viability if it doesn't have the popularity of the 243 or 270 ala Walmart. Pretty high bar, one not even the 300 WSM (the most successful cartridge roll-out of the last 50 years) can equal.

You're irrational.

PRdon my ignorance, are you serious???

Are you addressing me? If so, what ignorance of yours needs a pardon?

Yes I'm addressing you, about the 300?wsm being the top selling cartridge in the last 50 years... never had one.. carry on

If you can go back and read, I said it was the most successful cartridge roll-out (introduction) of the last 50 years... nowhere did I say it was the top selling cartridge of the last 50 years. Pretty hard to misunderstand I'd have thought.

Easy now Bradley.... guess this place has bred a defensive type behavior.... cool